7/6/2010--"Frozen" again

Nothing much to report on the money front. I'm about even this month. That's not the issue right now.


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Well, one of my sons really did it to me this time (the one on leave from US Army active duty in Alaska). He called and said that he wanted to see his maternal grandmother. He wanted to ride with my wife and I and my wife was working, so I told him to call back at 5. I also told him that his cousin from another state was in town along with her finance. He was excited about seeing everybody. When the cousin found out he was coming, she was excited as well.

I had just finished a tournament. Poker stopped. I starting making phone calls and sending E-mails. The cousin was at an amusement park, my wife was working (and couldn't take phone calls), my son was who-knows-where. I was trying to see if we could fit in a visit with my parents as well, so I was trying to coordinate all this instead of playing poker.

My son didn't call back at 5. I called him twice, and he did not answer. My wife was home now, and she suggested using her phone to call, and he answered right away. Bottom line, he had found a party and was blowing us off. Several hours of poker time lost.

We have seen him, for about 5 minutes, since he got into town. He said hello, we briefly met his fiancee, he announced, "I see you still live in the ghetto,", and he left, to visit his brother's in-laws (the party house). Oh, I almost forgot. During his very brief visit at out place, he pulled out his cell phone and ordered pizza for his next stop.

My other son, the one that lives in town, has also jerked us around lately, though not so egregiously. He's going to be around, something's going to happen and it doesn't--both of my sons understand that I'm a tournament poker player, and that I have to have some block of time to play, when I know what's going on. And that, more important, I don't need blocks of time when I don't play, and it turns out there was no reason for me to wait.

My wife works away from home. I have a home office, and I can supposedly work whenver I want. I envisioned 60 hour weeks. But it isn't happening, not even close. I'm incredibly frustated. I don't know if I'll get 20 this week.

My third son, who lives in Michigan but several hours away, is going to be back in town Friday. This will be the first time in years that my wife and I and all of our sons are going to be here at the same time. And I don't even want to deal with it any more.

My wife is devastated. She has wanted a new family picture for a very long time, but she's afraid to organize it and have someone not show up. She asked me last night if we would see our sons more often if we had alcohol in the house.

I was shocked by that question, but if we kept the beer flowing and opened up our house to all-night parties for my sons and their friends--yeah, I think she pretty much nailed it.